• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Bg levels

Sarah69

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,499
Location
Hethersett, Norwich
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Anything healthy!
Can anybody explain why your bg would rise overnight. When I went to bed my bg was 7.3 before breakfast it had gone up to 11 and I'd not eaten anything since about 6pm last night. Thanks
 
Hi Sarah,

Mine does the same. It's very frustrating. I've heard of something called the Dawn Phenomenon where your body releases growth hormones, cortisol, glucagon and epinephrine overnight and they increase insulin resistance. I've had some success eating a small high protein snack at the end of the day but not much. My GP is more interested in my HBA1C and not my fasting BG though. I was thinking about fasting all day one day as an experiment and seeing what happens the next morning but it's easier said than done.

Lisa x
 
It doesnt happen very often. I wonder if pain may also cause my bg to rise?
 
Bg rises overnight for a myrid of reasons. Stress, Dawn Phenomenon, liver dumps, no food, illness, infection etc .

More important is when did you test ? Immediately on waking ? Did you do anything between rising and eating. Shower, cleaning, exercise ? Everything will have an effect....Bg levels are never static so will always rise and fall, not just because of any food and drink you may have consumed.

DP is only one possibility, but a valid point.
 
I got up made a cup of tea and sat and watched tv, just as I do everyday. I think i tested about 2 hours later.
 
You sound much like me.......If I did that my Bg rises slowly even doing nothing, my body doesn't produce much Insulin first thing. In the evening it's the opposite and produces too much sending my levels down !!

Try eating a little snack with the cuppa ! Don't wait so long to eat.
 
I suffer with the dawn phenomenon, and find that I have to eat when I first get up, but it has to be protein not carbs.

I can eat carbs later in the day but not first thing in the morning
 
I am overweight and don't exercise so try hard not to have snacks, but surely if I had a snack when I got up that would push my sugars up even more?
 
It all depends on what sort of 'snack' you are thinking about. Nil or very low carbs would have little effect.

The point is you MUST test when you rise.......NOT 2 hrs later. That tells you what your overnight morning level (fasting) is. You then react to that reading.

If it is low and could be on the way down then you could 'liver dump' and the levels will go up even though you have had nothing to eat. By having a small snack OR your breakfast in that scenario you can make sure that you don't 'liver dump' and that your level stays lower than the 11+ you found the other day after 2 hrs. Do not eat lots of carbs, .......just enough to keep you from anything below 4 mmol/l. By waiting too long you may just be making things worse.

If on the other hand your level is high then you know that between bedtime and waking you have suffered the effects of the dawn phenomenon during the night. Again, sometimes a small carby snack at night can prevent that happening by stabilising the level throughout the night.

It is all down to the body's defence mechanism kicking in when your Bg level drops too low......whatever time of day or night it is. Hope that makes it a little clearer ?
 
Hi Sarah,
I found excactly the same was happening to me so I know how annoying it is. I also thought logically, the same as you, that if I eat my sugars will rise. This is true, however if you dont eat especially first thing, they will rise anyway but you will have far less control over them. I now understand that the body automatically produces glucose in lots of different ways to enable it to function only for a diabetic we have one major missing ingrediant in order to balance it out. I cant recomend strongly enough that when you get up, test your blood sugar straight away then inject (are you type1?) or treat accordingly then eat a healthy breaky soon as. Check your BM again 2ish hours later and see if thats helped. I find that by getting my sugars right first thing I seem to have better control all day. I also dont eat starchy carbs or saturated fats not only are my sugars a lot better but I ve lost weight and have so much more energy. If you find that to much to give up just cut them down as much as possible. A small bedtime snack of a high protien food may help too. Good luck huni
 
Thanx for the replies. I get up at 7.30 but I cant eat as soon as im up thats why I have a cup of tea 1st, this has only happened a few mornings. I am on 3 injections of novorapid a day not been told to adjust insulin. I have attended a carb counting course today and the woman doing it could have been speaking chinese for all I understood. Just seems all the foods I usually eat im not able to eat a lot of and things I dont like I can eat lots of! Im sure i'll muddle through somehow. Although i've been a diabetic 13+ years I feel I know nothing really!
 
Morning high

I know I've asked about this before but what can I do to counteract this happening, my bs going to bed last night was 7.9 this morning it was 12.3. I test my bs about an 1-2 hours after getting up. I need this time to wake up and certainly can't eat as soon as I'm up, just 2 cups of tea, so any ideas as to what I can do?
 
Re: Morning high

How much milk do you have in your tea? I'd ask for sugar too but that's obvious, where it's easy to forget to include milk in carb counting. For me it is, anyway.
 
Re: Morning high



Sarah.
The point is you MUST test when you rise.......NOT 1-2 hrs later. That tells you what your overnight morning level (fasting) is. You then react to that reading. Waiting will just make things worse.......

The previous answers you were given have been merged here......they are still relevant.
 
I have sweetner in tea and a normal amount of milk. If my bg is high when I get up wat am I supposed to do cos I can't eat that soon after getting up!
 
If you can't eat a meal then just do as in a previous answer.......have a couple of biscuits.... that MAY be enough to stop your levels climbing. Other than that you will have to put up with it if you don't want to change or modify what you do. I don't particularly want to eat as soon as I am up but if I need to stop a 'liver dump' then I have to have something.....no choice really short of taking extra meds or in your case Insulin.
 
Re: Morning high


It's a difficult one Sarah as I have to eat within 30 minutes of waking otherwise my liver starts to dump glucose. Tomorrow try testing your bg on waking then have piece of toast with a small dose of insulin to cover the carbs, after this test 1 and 2 hours after to see if your bg remains in single figures, failing that you may need to look at your basal insulin.

Nigel
 
Sarah69 said:
If I eat a few biscuits surely that will take my levels up even further?
Click to expand...

You might only need one or two to stop your liver dumping glucose......it gives you time then to wait that 1-2 hrs until you eat without ramping up BG levels. Just make sure the biccies are low in carbs and definitely avoid chocolate ones. :shock:

That is similar to what I do if my breakfast is delayed and my Bg level is low on waking. Try it and see if it works for you.......
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…